Page 14 - ELG2304 Apr Issue 484

NEWS FEATURE .

Forty-four years and counting The third tower. Source: Court of Justice of the European Union
Forty-four years and counting

Henry Rodgers tells the full story of Italy’s foreign language

lettori and their historic fight against discrimination

n May 30 1989, a date that Italian nationals, the Court found it to favourable rulings in a line of litigation
foreign language lecturers in be discriminatory. It was a simple, open- which stems directly from the 1989 ruling.
Italian universities have come and-shut case, which merely required As such, it is the longest-running breach
Oto call Pilar Allué Day, the EU Italy to convert the annual Lettori of the freedom of movement on record
Court of Justice(CJEU) issued its sentence contracts into indefinite-term ones, Italy interpreted the 1989 Allué ruling
in a reference for preliminary ruling case with remuneration linked to the pay as condoning annual contracts while
taken by Spanish national Allué against scale of Italian teaching staff. But Pilar rendering illegal the limit on the number
her employer. Allué Day is not celebrated as the date of renewals. Allué herself contested Italy’s
Employed as a foreign language on which this right was won. May 30 restrictive misreading. The 1993 ruling in
lecturer (lettore) at the Università degli 1989 is historic for altogether different Allué 2 clarified that the earlier ruling
studi di Venezia, Allué had contested reasons: it denotes the starting point meant that non-national teaching staff
an Italian law under which she and her from which to measure the duration of had a right to the open-ended contracts
Lettori colleagues could be employed on Italy’s non-compliance with the Lettori enjoyed by Italian nationals.
one-year contracts with the possibility discrimination sentences of the CJEU. In 1995 Italy legislated for open-
for up to five renewals. As no such limit The non-compliance persists to the ended contracts. But, to cut the cost to
to the duration of employment applied to present day despite three subsequent the universities, the law simultaneously
14 April 2023